Chapter 4 - Responding to Opening 1-Level bids in a Suit

Question 1

Your partner has opened the bidding with 1 of a suit. You have fewer than 6 HC points. How do you respond?

Answer 1

Pass.

With less than 6 points you must always pass.

Question 2

Your partner opens 1 of a suit and you have support for opener’s suit. What does that mean?

Answer 2

It means that you have 4 or more cards in the suit your partner opened with.

(For partner to have opened 1 in the suit, he needed to have at least 4 cards in that suit. Your 4+ card support means that, together, you have at least the minimum 8 suit cards you are looking for)

Question 3

Your partner opens 1 of a suit. You respond with 2 of partner’s suit. What are you promising?

Answer 3

6-9 points and 4+ card support in partner’s suit

(very occasionally, if you had no other reasonable bid, you MIGHT choose to bid 2 of partner’s suit with only 3 card support but this would be unusual and is a bit misleading to partner. Don’t try this without at least 1 honour card among the 3 supporting cards you hold.)

Question 4

Your partner opens 1 of a suit. You respond in a different suit. What must opening partner do?

Answer 4

Bid!

A change of suit response to a 1 level suit opening is a FORCING BID. The opening bidder may not pass.

Question 5

Your partner opens 1 of a suit. You respond with 3 of partner’s suit. What are you promising?

Answer 5

10-12 points and 4+ card support in partner’s suit

you MUST have at least 4 cards, there is no wiggle room for 3 even if all 3 are strong

Question 6

Your partner opens 1 of a suit. You have 6-9 HC points and 5+ card support in partner’s suit. What should you do first before responding?

Answer 6

Add any ‘shortage points’ to your HC point count.

(Add in 3 points for any voids, 2 points for any singletons and 1 point for any doubletons. The resulting new point count should be used to determine the level of your bid)

Question 7

Your partner opens 1 of a suit. You have 5+ card support in partner’s suit but less than 10 HC points. After adding in your shortage points, you find you have 13 points. What is your bid?

Answer 7

4 of partner’s suit.

(Partner’s minimum 12 points plus your 13 puts you at the 4 level. If partner has more than 12 you might be in slam territory and he/she will bid accordingly)

Question 8

Your partner opens 1 in a suit. You have a distributional hand and no support for partner’s suit. What must you hold to be able to change the suit?

Answer 8

6+ points and a 4+ card biddable suit…but only if you can bid at the 1 level. If you need to go to the 2 level to bid your 4+ card suit, you must have 8+ points.

(Note: With either of these bids, there is no limit to the number of points you may hold or the number of cards you may hold in the suit. For example, you could have 12 points and 6 suit cards.)

Question 9

Partner opens 1 spade. Your best suit is hearts. What must you hold in order to bid 2 hearts?

Answer 9

a minimum of 8 points and 5+ hearts.

(Normally, to change suit at the 2 level you need 8+ points and only 4 of the new suit. Bidding hearts after a 1 spade opening is the exception to the rule. It sounds arbitrary but if opener wants to show a second suit he will now have to do so at the 3 level - he needs to know your hearts are worthwhile.)

Question 10

Opener bids 1 diamond and partner responds with 1 heart, 1 spade or 2 clubs. What must the opener do now?

Answer 10

The opener must now rebid.

(Whenever opener bids a suit and responder bids another suit in response the bid is forcing for one round. On the next bid, opener MUST rebid - passing is not an option.)

Question 11

What is a Jump Shift?

Answer 11

This is where responder changes the suit and also bids it at a level one higher than necessary.

Question 12

Why would you respond to a 1 suit opening bid with a jump shift?

Answer 12

The jump shift (skipping 1 level to change suit) shows your partner that the partnership has slam potential.

(The jump shift is a very strong bid. Do not waste bidding space this way if you are only interested in game or if you don’t know already know which suit will be trumps.)

Question 13

Partner opens 1 heart. You can’t support hearts but you have loads of points and really strong diamonds in your hand. You would like to show slam potential in your suit (diamonds) by using a jump shift. What must you hold to do this and what is the bid?

Answer 13

You must hold:
- 8+ of the new suit (in this case that would be 8 or
more diamonds), with some strength in it AND
- 16+ points

You would bid 3 diamonds

Question 14

Fill in the blank: Never bid NT in response to a 1 opening suit if you have ________.

Answer 14

A reasonable 4 card major suit.

always show your biddable major suit before moving to NT

Question 15

Partner bid 1 spade. You hold this hand: Spades (Q,5,2), Hearts (K,J), Diamonds (J,4) and Clubs (10,9,7,6,4,2). What do you bid?

Answer 15

1NT

(You want to bid to show you have 6-10 points but you can’t support partner’s spades. You also don’t have a biddable 4 card major (hearts). You can’t bid clubs because you would have to bid 2S and you need 8 points to change the suit at the 2 level. 1NT is the answer. NOTE: you do not need a balanced hand to respond 1NT.)

Question 16

Partner bids a suit at the 1 level. What should you hold to bid 2NT?

Answer 16

10-12 points, balanced hand, fewer than 4 cards in partner’s suit, no 4 card major.

(Also, if you only have 10 points, you should have some 10s and 9s at least (rather than low cards) or you are best sticking to 1NT)

Question 17

Partner opens with a suit bid at the 1 level. You have 16+ points. What else must you hold in order to both show support for partner’s suit and alert partner to your high point count? What is the bid?

Answer 17

You need strong 4+ support of partner’s suit which includes an Ace or a King.

The bid is in partner’s suit, skipping a level.

Question 18

What is a Delayed Game Raise and when would you use it?

Answer 18

A Delayed Game Raise is when your partner has opened one of a suit and although you can support this suit and have sufficient points to go to game, you deliberately bid a different suit instead. You then bid to game in the correct suit on the next round.

You would do this if you have 13-15 points and 4+ card support for the opening suit.

(Because the DGR changes the suit, it is a forcing bid so partner will not pass. It just delays your going to game which tells partner what you are holding. If he has more than minimum points, he may then explore slam potential)

Question 19

You open 1 diamond. Partner responds 1 heart. What do you know about what partner is holding?

Answer 19

He has 6+ points (no upper limit implied)

He has 4+ hearts and at least 1 of them is an honour (again, there is no limit implied about the number of hearts held)

Question 20

Partner opens with a suit bid at the 1 level. You have 16+ points. What else must you hold in order to both change the suit and also alert partner to your high point count? What is the bid?

Answer 20

You need to hold 8+ cards in the new suit, with a few honour cards.

Bid the new suit skipping a level

Question 21

You open 1 Heart. Partner responds 2 diamonds. What do you know about what partner is holding?

Answer 21

She has 8+ points (no upper limit implied)

She has 4+ Diamonds, including at least 1 honour (no upper limit implied)